Way back in school we were told how writing a diary daily would help our language skills. We don’t need to improve our skills anymore but think about this, an effortless strictly-personal diary would be awesome. But to keep a hard paper diary is too cumbersome and the online apps are too crappy. Why not use facebook, yes, facebook!

All you have to do is make a new account on facebook, tell facebook not to show you in search and change privacy settings for all your content to be private to you. It’d be so awesome. Videos, photographs, status messages, notes, links (even the :p links). Everything in one place, in an interface you know by the heart.

I am getting on this once I am done with the exams, you guys give it a try.

You’re in. You’re a student. Now it’s about learning more, preparing for your career, and having a little fun too. Apple can help with all of that.

Many colleges and universities are now tech savvy. Campus information and study materials are being posted online. Many professors are podcasting lectures. Projects demand more polish and sophistication. It’s an exciting time to be a student. Because what happens in the classroom no longer stays in the classroom — you can use your computer, your iPod or your iPhone to work where you want, when you want.

Apple is at the core of this emerging direction for teaching and learning. The Mac is now the number one computer for education. iTunes U has quickly become the largest source of free mobile educational content. Mac Family iLife, iWork and Apple professional applications such as Final Cut and Aperture are the standards for media-intensive projects. The Mac, iPod and iPhone all combine power, integration, durability and ease of use that make them integral to learning today. With Apple and the Mac, you get the tools you need to succeed in your studies. And you develop the skills that will be required to succeed in your career.

Apple is offering discounts to staff and students of universities, and teachers/administrators of secondary schools. So, the Macbook is available at Rs. 49,790/- as against the regular price of Rs 56,580/- ; The Macbook Pro and Macbook Air are available at Rs. 59,937/- and Rs. 75,152/- as against regular price of Rs. 68,110/- and Rs. 85,400/-

So rush in, get your Mac, the offer is valid only till September End.

For details go to this page.

IRCTC is not the only case, the same happens with most of the other websites run by the government, like those of the MCD & NDPL.

Yesterday, my internet was down. I called up Customer Care only to be told it’ll take at least 24 hours to rectify the problem as the problem was with the backend & it was a Sunday. A couple of calls later, I managed to get an ‘engineer’ to visit my place.

The ‘engineer’ turned out to be nothing better than MTNL’s babus. It looked like he was working for the first time on Vista. All he knew was to keep clicking Next>>Next>>Next>>Finish in the router’s control panel (~192.168.1.1). Any problem & he promptly called up his seniors to ask what he should do next. The seniors, on their part, never answered or returned any of his calls. His last resort were the vague guidance given by his co-engineers. He told me to switch off the router, unplug all the wires, plug them again & switch it on to make the DSL work. I was simply disgusted. All the while, he was pinging his DNS server in another window.

At 16, I know much more than these engineers. I wondered if these are really engineers or just mechanics (I couldn’t find a more insulting word) who have crammed up the Next>>……>>Finish process of the router, & I still wonder!

Now each time there is a power-cut (this is India), two of my devices have to crash for no fault of mine. The temporary solution (well kind of) I’ve found is that I’ve connected only the essential devices, i.e. the CPU, display & the router to the UPS (well I want uninterrupted Internet) while the MFD & the speakers are at the mercy of the awful direct power supply.

As for the time I am offline, I am hunting for a UPS with at least 6 sockets for all my present & future needs.

Hope I find one soon!